Research

Project Plan

With colleagues from Rutgers University (New Brunswick and Newark campuses) and Princeton University, NJIT Office of Research and senior neuroscience researcher faculty agreed to promote a concerted effort by the New Jersey academic institutions to foster neuroscience and neural engineering research and graduate training. The goal of this concerted effort is to advocate for a New Jersey Neuroscience Commission.

There are multiple research labs, centers and individual faculty research initiatives at NJIT, which focus on problems of neuroscience or brain function and injury; these efforts are currently spread across different departments in multiple colleges. Rutgers University and Princeton University now have institutes (the Brain Health Institute at RU and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at PU) that represent neurosciences. The IBNR would serve a similar purpose at NJIT as both a research and a training entity.

IBNR is proposed with the following plan:

To synergize and promote neuroscience and neural engineering research and educational training at NJIT.

To holistically represent neuroscience and neural engineering research and training at NJIT and provide visibility at the national and international levels.

To aid, in collaboration with industry and similar institutes at Rutgers and Princeton, in the formation of NJ Neuroscience at the state level

To achieve this vision, we propose a two-fold Project Plan:

To consolidate neuroscience and neural engineering research at NJIT under a single umbrella organization.

To develop a multi-disciplinary graduate program in neuroscience and neural engineering.

Proposed Activities

Foster pilot research and training projects across various faculty from engineering, sciences and mathematics within NJIT.

Submit one or more graduate training grants in neuroscience and neural engineering related areas within three years (e.g. NIH T32/T34, NSF NRT).

Initiate an interdisciplinary neuroscience and neural engineering PhD degree program within five years at NJIT.

Initiate a postdoctoral career workshop in neuroscience and engineering at NJIT.

Identify scientific and technology gaps and spearhead the recruitment of six new tenure-track faculty members in neuroscience and neural engineering in the next five years. These faculty members will be hired into current NJIT departments and ideally would have multi-departmental affiliations. There is a commitment from the Provost to support this effort. IBNR will actively participate in the identification of and recruitment of these faculty members.

Expand the interdisciplinary neuroscience and neural engineering program through collaboration among various NJ universities, including Rutgers and Princeton.

Increase research funding in neuroscience and neural engineering by 50% in five years.

Sponsor a visiting research scholar plan at NJIT. This plan will sponsor temporary visits by international scholars as well as promote and support sabbatical visits to NJIT.

Run a neuroscience and neural engineering themed seminar series at NJIT.

Run an annual meeting for the members to vote on major decisions and a biannual retreat to present research from member labs and to promote discussions and collaborations among members.